By Its Cover
by authorincognito
Summary: Where Paul experiences the old English saying "Don't judge a book by its cover," when meeting his future stepson for the first time. Edited.


Having been a teacher for some ten years by now, Paul Blofis tried to greet each child, pre-teen, or teenager with an open mind. He tried not to make assumptions based on appearance or tales told from teachers who had previously had said person in their classroom. Sadly, he did not do this when he first heard about his future stepson.

The way that Sally talked about him, you would have figured that Percy was a straight A, sports loving, community helping, class president type of kid that always was an example to the students of the high school that he went to. Nope. Instead, Paul found out that Percy Jackson was a D average student who did not take part in any student activities at all.

This information all in all wasn't what made Paul wary of Percy at all. Personally, Paul had met a few students like this who were perfectly reasonable. However, the additional information on Percy Jackson. When Sally had first told Paul on how Percy had somehow managed to be in seven separate schools in seven years without so much as blinking an eye, he thought that she was joking. When he found out that she wasn't he began to worry about ever meeting the famous Percy Jackson. Just when Paul didn't think it would get any worse, Paul found out from a friend that Percy had been on a nationwide manhunt just a few short years ago. Of course, Percy had gotten off completely free from incident as it was do to a misunderstanding, but that didn't stop Paul from going in a small panic attack whenever he heard about him.

And today on Christmas Day, 2006, Paul was officially about to meet Percy Jackson. Paul slowly curled his fingers into a fist and held them over the door. Initiating full-on panic mode in 3. 2. 1.

With a deep breath, Paul Blofis gently knocked on the door to his girlfriend's apartment.

Paul paused, there was complete silence on the other side of the door. He leaned his head against the door, trying to hear if there was anybody was in there. There was the faint sound of water running that almost covered up the sound of music that accompanied it. Sighing, Paul removed his hand and knocked again, this time louder and with more force.

Not too much later did Paul hear the sound of footsteps approaching the door. The door opened to reveal a tall teenager with longish, somewhat messy black hair sea green eyes and a smile that took up over half of his face.

"Sorry. I didn't hear you the first time. You're Mr. . . Blofis, right?" The teenager said, obviously straining to pronounce his name correctly.

Paul couldn't help himself. He smiled. Usually when people said his last name, they mistook it for _Blowfish. _This had started in elementary school, whenever his first-grade teacher had mispronounced his name when doing class attendance. Ever since, Paul had hated the very mention of the word and would be quick to anger to anyone who mispronounced his name.

"Yes, and are you the famous Percy Jackson that your mother has had the pleasure of telling me all about?"

"Yeah." Percy said, still smiling.

He stood there blocking the doorway for a few more seconds until Paul motioned with his hand for him to move.

" Oh! Right. Sorry about that." Percy said sheepishly, moving out the way so that Paul could walk into the apartment. It looked exactly the same as he remembered from the last time he had been here a few days ago. Modest, with a few items here and there to give it a sense of individuality. Paul made himself at home by sitting on the couch at the end of the room beside of the small Christmas tree that had been placed there with a few wrapped gifts placed in various spots. Reaching into his coat pocket, Paul pulled out a single wrapped present and laid it atop a small present wrapped in blue wrapping paper.

Paul straightened back up and saw that Percy had sat down on the other side of the couch.

When he noticed that Paul was looking at him, Percy jerked his head over toward the bathroom door, where Paul could now hear where the sound of running water was coming from. "Mom's in the shower. She'll be out in a few minutes."

"Okay." Paul said.

Silence followed soon after that as Paul tried to think of something to say. Hmm, what exactly did you say to a teenager whose past screamed delinquent? Although, now that he was right beside Percy, he began to question everything that he had heard about him. Paul had been expecting a loud, obnoxious, rude teenager who would act like he was the only thing that mattered in the world. Instead, he got someone who wasn't any of those things and wouldn't sit still longer than a minute or two.

After a few more minutes of this, Paul couldn't help himself. "Could you sit still, please?"

Percy stopped moving and looked over at Paul. "Sorry. I have ADHD."

"Oh, right." Paul said, now embarrassed for snapping at him like that. He now recalled Sally saying something similar to that when they first met. She also said that he had something else to. . . Dyslexia.

"So, how's school been going for you." Paul asked, just to break the uncomfortable silence following the previous exchange of words.

"All right, I guess. Got detention a couple of times, but nothing to exciting."

"Oh, why'd you get detention for?" Paul asked, his mind immediately going to he automatic thoughts of skipping, drugs, and alcohol.

"I punched a kid who was bullying this other kid. The teacher only saw me hit him, and she gave me detention straight away. Some other kids who were there told her exactly what happened, so she also gave the bully detention to. However she decided to go ahead and let me keep my detention, as I was promoting," at this Percy made quotation marks with his fingers, "violence"."

Paul stared at Percy impressed. Paul knew that over half of the kids that he teached wouldn't even think about doing what Percy did.

"That was very brave of you." Paul said.

Percy shrugged his shoulders. "It was nothing, really."

Suddenly, the water in the bathroom cut off. In a few more minutes, Sally appeared, fully clothed with a towel wrapped around her head. "Hello, Paul. When did you get here?"

Paul opened his mouth to speak when Percy answered for him. "About ten minutes ago."

Sally turned toward Percy. "Why thank you, _Paul." _She said with a laugh.

Suddenly, there was a small dinging noise that came from the kitchen. "Oh! The cookies are done. Would you like some?" Sally asked Paul.

Paul smiled at her. "Yes please."

Sally smiled back and walked toward the kitchen. "Hey! I want some, too!" Percy called out after her.

Sally laughed. "Of course." She shouted back just as she turned the corner into the kitchen.

She returned not long after that with a plate full of cookies threatening to fall over. Setting the plate down onto the coffee table, Sally sat down between Paul and Percy, who immediately reached forward and snatched a cookie off the plate as soon as it was on solid ground.

"Ow! Hot!" He exclaimed after taking a very large bite of it.

"It's hot." Sally said calmly as she helped herself to a cookie.

"Thanks for the warning." Percy said, taking another bite of his cookie with more caution.

Paul suppressed a laugh as he reached for a cookie himself. He paused when the cookie was about an inch from his face. Frowning, he pulled it away. Were his eyes deceiving him? No, Paul thought, the cookie really is blue.

"The cookie is blue." Paul said stupidly, looking over at Sally.

She winced. "Sorry it's a family tradition. I could bake another batch if you want."

Paul shook his head. "No. That's all right. If it's a family tradition, then you should keep it." He said as he took a bite out of the blue cookie.

He looked behind Sally and saw Percy now apparently now attempting to see how many cookies he could put in his mouth. Hmm. . . Paul thought as he took bite of his cookie. Perhaps Percy Jackson wasn't as bad as everyone made him out to be. Content with that thought, Paul finished off his cookie and reached for another one.


End file.
